A Sad Day

Very well said on behalf of all of us. 

Anybody get one of these?

The "church" of convicted child molester Tony Alamo is passing out flyers in Shreveport and Bossier. This morning they were in North Bossier leaving them on cars.
Remember Alamo was convicted of child sexual abuse and is in prison.

Bossier Crime Stoppers has vacancies on Board

Bossier Crime Stoppers is seeking individuals in Bossier who are interested in making a difference in their community by becoming part of their crime fighting team. Bossier Crime Stoppers is currently accepting applications to fill vacancies on their board. 

            Applicants must be employed or reside in Bossier Parish, at least 21 years of age and have no criminal history.  Persons submitting applications are subject to a background check and, if selected, will be required to sign a confidentiality agreement           

            Applications can be made by submitting a letter of introduction along with a resume and at least three references to the following address:  Crime Stoppers of Bossier, PO Box 5714, Bossier City, LA  71171. All applications must be submitted by December 1, 2012.

            Bossier Crime Stoppers board members serve on a voluntary basis.  The board currently meets the third Tuesday of every month with additional meetings scheduled as necessary.

            Crime Stoppers is a non-profit organization that supports community involvement in trying to prevent and solve crimes in communities and schools across the nation.

            Applicants in need of further information can call (318) 741-8648.

Bossier City man arrested for child porn

Forty year old David Mitcham Conerly has been arrested by Bossier City Police on charges of pornography involving juveniles.
The case developed after Conerly left a laptop at Best Buy for repairs and employees spotted the porn and called police.

Channel 12 has the complete story.

Scott Tubbs charged with Aggravated Incest

I first blogged about Scott Tubbs in January of 2011. Tubbs, owner of a local used appliance store, had announced that he would be a candidate for President of the United States. Here’s that blog post.
Rollin' with the Big Dawgs
Tubbs became a little less funny last May when he made a spectacle of himself at the scene of a suicide. That one is here:
Self Promotion on the back of a family's grief
Now, anything about this guy that made us laugh (or snicker) has disappeared. 
Tubbs has been charged with aggravated incest after an investigation by Bossier Juvenile authorities. He is accused of having sexual contact with an underage female relative.
KTBS

The difficult case of Marvin Young

Marvin Young was arrested in 2010 and charged with the rape of a mentally handicapped woman. He was charged with aggravated rape. His wife, Glenda, was charged as an accessory.
The case has gone through all the usual pre-trial meetings, discovery and status conferences that these things go through. The court ruled that a statement made by Young to police would be admissible in court. Of course, we don’t know what was in that statement.
The case finally ended this week with a plea of guilty to Criminal Trespass. Young, who was facing life in prison, was sentenced to time served and is a free man today.
The problem was that the victim did not want to testify and that her mother wanted the charges to be dropped.
The victim has had some setbacks. In the last couple of years she has shown erratic behavior, coming up missing a couple of times with the family appealing to local media to help locate her.
In her first visit to court, according to DA Schuyler Marvin, she had a complete breakdown. Marvin said that without the testimony of the victim, it would be impossible to get a conviction.
DA Marvin told KSLA “We have traveled to Bienville Parish to meet with the victim and her mother, I've sent numerous subpoenas to them, I know what their position is, I've known this for a year and a half now. 
When asked if he tried hard enough Marvin responded, "Everything short of putting a mentally handicapped person in a set of handcuffs, putting her mother in a set of handcuffs, putting her in a patrol car and bringing them up here."
Considering the victim’s handicap, I don’t know that her testimony could have been compelled by the state. If it could have been, would it have resulted in a conviction, even at the price of possibly sending an already troubled person into an even worse state?
No easy answers to this one.

Haughton man tries to carjack U.S. Marshals

Joshua Carter, 25, (of Haughton of course), decided he was going to jack a vehicle in downtown Shreveport yesterday afternoon.
Now I don't know what thought processes (if any) a person goes through to come up with the brilliant idea to attempt to carjack the black SUV with the blacked out windows. I mean, who could have guessed?
When Carter tried the door handles and beat on the windows, three members of a U.S. Marshal's task force bailed out of the vehicle and arrested him.
I haven't awarded one of these in a while, but Mr. Carter truly deserves it.

Sorry punk beats 4 year old, Mom ignores

A four year old child is in critical condition after undergoing brain surgery at LSUHSC yesterday afternoon. She was abused by her mother’s live-in boyfriend, Joshua Hastings, who claimed that he ‘accidentally’ struck her in the head with his knee, knocking her out. He also admitted to beating her with a belt on July 26th and hitting her in the head and face on July 27th.
So the girl’s mother, Rebecca Smith, in her infinite wisdom, left him to babysit the child and two others yesterday.  Smith was also arrested for failing to get medical attention for the child. Both Hastings and Smith face charges for Possession of Marijuana, Drug Paraphernalia and three counts of a controlled dangerous substance in the presence of a minor. Here is a little background on Hastings.
Civil
On the Civil side Hastings’ former girlfriend, with whom he has a child, filed for a protective order on May 8, 2008. She alleged that on April 30, 2008 he:
‘came to my house broke in a window knocked on the door got back in a window. Then I preceded (sic) to the bedroom not knowing he was there. The window was open, his boots were on the ground. I turned around turned the light on he was behind the door. Some yelling occurred he went towards the door, said he was (illegible) after revenge. He threatened the other person who was at my residence finally he left after I called the police’.
As to past incidents, she alleged:
‘There was a charge of Domestic Violence around December of 2006.
There have been several times in which I thought I was in danger. He drove off in my vehicle when I was still on it when I was pregnant, he slammed the on my head. He mentally manipulated & abused me, he choked me so hard I passed out, one time I told him I didn’t want to have intercourse he did it anyways.’
She was granted an order of protection until November 20, 2009.
The order was dismissed at the girlfriend’s request on July 9, 2009.
‘Josh and I have reconciled and are on better terms. We feel we have both grown and learned from our past. We are civil now I feel no threat towards him. I would like to join back into a relationship with him. I feel that this would also benefit the child that we share.’
Apparently this rosy scenario didn’t work out, because now he is abusing someone else. Hastings and his girlfriend both filed for custody, but it was continued and never pursued.
Criminal
Not in chronological order. On the Domestic Violence charge mentioned in the application for the protective order, he was sentenced to 90 days in jail and given credit for time served.
On December 8, 2005, he was charged with Possession of Marijuana, paraphernalia, speeding and driving under suspension. He was fined $500 and 90 days probation.
In mid-2008 he was charged with two counts of unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling, that of his girlfriend with whom he had a child. This was while he was under the order of protection and a year before she asked for it to be dismissed.
He was sentenced to 3 years, suspended, and 3 years probation. He later violated the terms of probation, and was ordered by Judge Craig to serve the original sentence, with credit for any time already served.
In June of 2011 he was charged with Possession of Marijuana and Oxycodone. On December 6th he was sentenced to five years, suspend all but one year, with credit for time served. He is currently still on probation.
I would like to offer a couple of other comments about these women who enable a thug like this, but I will refrain; after all, a 4 year old is in peril and that should receive our attention at the moment.

Bossier City Scumbag rapes one-year old boy

Zachery Keith Jordan of 321 Berry Street in Bossier City was arrested for raping a one-year old boy. Berry and ‘others’ were supposedly babysitting the child Saturday night.
The boy’s mother took him to WK South on Sunday and detectives were called.
Jordan was arrested in June on a charge of simple possession of marijuana, along with three other people who all gave the Berry Street address as their own. Arraignment on that charge was set for August 29th.
Jordan is in Bossier Max.

SCUMBAG Zachery Keith Jordan

Three Year Old arrives at daycare with marijuana, xanax

A three year old Bossier City boy gave his teacher a bag containing marijuana & 36 bars of Xanax after he arrived at the Hooter Park Head Start Center today.

Patrol officers, Detectives, Juvenile and Narcotics offiers arrested Angela Evette Jenkins, Jessica Renee Flournoy and Ellis Ray Flournoy Jr. and charged them with a variety of crimes.
Child Protective Services took custody of the three year old and two other children who were at the apartment.

KTAL has the complete story on the Ark La Tex Home Page.

Haughton Cat Lady arrested for dope

When Bossier deputies went to arrest a woman on dope charges this afternoon they got a little more than they bargained for.

When they got to the trailer of Carol McKnight, 47, of (you guessed it) Haughton, the deputies found more than 50 cats in the singlewide mobile home.
The cat lady was charged with distributing xanax, darvocet and meth.
Bossier City spokesman Mark Natale said that if the cats are not removed from the home by tomorrow that animal control will get them.
That’s just nasty.

NAACP calls for review of Shreveport Police shooting

On December 15^th, Shreveport Police Cpl. Bryan Lauzon was working private security at the Fair Park Terrace Apartments. When he spotted 44 year old Michael Gilyard riding his bicycle on the sidewalk coming from an area of the apartments where there had been complaints of drug activity, Lauzon stopped him and questioned him.
You can watch the dashcam video of the stop here.
After some initial conversation, Gilyard consented to being patted down. When Cpl. Lauzon found a pistol concealed on Gilyard, he was attacked and Gilyard attempted to get possession of Lauzon’s service weapon. Lauzon warned Gilyard that he would shoot him, but Gilyard persisted. Lauzon shot him. Gilyard was pronounced dead at the hospital.
After an extensive investigation, DA Charles Scott announced this week that Lauzon was within his rights to use deadly force.
In the Times article, Scott is quoted as saying "All the evidence clearly shows no wrongdoing in the actions of Officer Lauzon, either during the initial stop of Michael Gilyard or the subsequent altercation which resulted in the shooting."
"Investigators found 16.8 grams of marijuana, 3.8 grams of crack cocaine packaged for individual sale, over $5,000 in cash and a .45-caliber handgun in Gilyard's clothing. A criminal conviction for the possession of the firearm alone would have resulted in a minimum of 10 years in prison for Gilyard."
Enter the NAACP. They are asking for a review of the case by the Louisiana Attorney General and the U. S. Justice Department. While DA Scott says he welcomes the review, I don’t understand their reasoning; I suppose they believe that Lauzon should have submitted and allowed Gilyard to shoot him.
It is a terrible thing when something like this happens, but in the words of DA Scott "When you attack a fully armed officer, it probably won't end well".
A Facebook page has been set up to show support for Cpl. Lauzon. If you are on Facebook, be sure to go the the page and click the ‘like’ button.
Support Shreveport Police Cpl. Bryan Lauzon

Video Voyeurism in an unexpected place

Some things are just difficult to understand.
Take the case of Paul E. Holmes of Haughton, who was arrested and charged with Video Voyeurism and Child Porn.
If you are not familiar with the story, The Times has it online.
Assuming you have read it or seen it on the news, I will proceed with a few thoughts.
This is a case of a 55 year old man, active in his church, placing video cameras in a bathroom during a church connected sleepover for teenage girls at his home.
He apparently has no record of such behavior, and no criminal record. The church can’t be blamed. The parents of the girls showed due diligence in allowing their daughters to attend, it was in the home of one of their own church members, and they had absolutely no reason to even remotely suspect that something like this would, or could, happen.
I feel for the victims; a great mental and emotional stress attaches itself to something like this.
I feel for his family. I can only imagine what his wife and children are suffering.
I have heard of cases where someone with a brain tumor displayed a similar type of behavior, and I wondered if there is something like that going on with this man. I’m not looking for an excuse for him, but with no record of any similar behavior for 55 years, it makes you wonder.
If my daughter or one of my granddaughters was victimized in this way, I know that I would not look at it in such a subjective manner, I would only react to the event itself. And that reaction would not be good.
As my friend Rex pointed out in a Facebook exchange, thank goodness that one of the girls was aware of her surroundings and called her mother and let her know what was going on. That mother is the one who notified the police.
If there is a lesson here, it is to teach your children at an early age to be aware, and never to hesitate to talk to you, or to report to someone in authority if something out of the ordinary arouses their suspicions.

Who stole the wreath?

Some things are just harder to understand than others.
For instance, I can understand a crackhead stealing his grandmother's microwave to sell for dope.  After all, he is a crackhead and has a serious addiction.
I can understand a deadbeat shoplifting a couple of cans of beer, after all, he is a deadbeat.
I can't understand someone stealing a memorial wreath left for a friend who died in a car accident just a few short months ago.  That is what happened to this memorial wreath left by a friend of Melissa Maggio's at the scene of the accident on Benton Road.
If you have any idea who stole this wreath, please ask them to return it.

Benton man drunk in Legacy Elementary Parking Lot

A man was arrested late last night for driving while intoxicated and disturbing the peace drunk.
Brandon Kane Butler, 29, of the 4500 block of Lawndale in Benton, was found in the driver's seat of his parked truck in Legacy Elementary parking lot after 11:00 p.m. last night. Butler stated that he was driving and realized that he was too drunk to do so. He then pulled into the school parking lot and turned his parking lights on. He showed signs of intoxication and performed poorly on the standard field sobriety test.
Butler was arrested and transported to the Bossier Maximum Security Facility for booking. He refused the Intoxilyzer. Butler's bond is set at $1150.
From Bossier Parish Sheriff

2011: Crime and Convictions

I decided to just concentrate this one on what I consider to be the three worst crimes of 2011 in Bossier.
We still have three weeks left in 2011. I hope I won’t have to amend this and include another.

Celeste Lowe

Catherine
Lowe

In January, Wesley and Catherine Lowe were arrested and originally charged with negligent homicide in the death of 5 year old Anna Celeste Lowe. The child died from internal bleeding caused by severe trauma.
After watching the child suffer for two days, Stepmother Catherine Lowe finally took her to Willis-Knighton Pierremont. Celeste had been dead for two hours when they arrived at the hospital.
Catherine Lowe was then charged with 1st Degree Murder, which was later dropped to 2nd Degree. In October, the DA offered her a plea of manslaughter. Just this week Lowe refused the offer.
The trial is set to begin on February 13th.
Wesley Lowe is also set for trial on February 13th on the negligent homicide charge. He also was charged in June with possession of Schedule II & Schedule IV CDS.

Bill Norris Appliance Triple Murder

Compliments of Rex Moncrief

 On April 12th, Bossier City was rocked by the triple murder at Bill Norris Appliance on Barksdale Boulevard.

Ten days later, BCPD arrested Gerald Cortez Needham aka Copperhead and charged him with the murders. Needham has a long criminal history and Bossier City detectives zeroed in on him as their prime suspect.

Fast forward to July. A robbery at Emerson’s store in Haughton resulted in the suspect, Robert L. Clark, firing a gun (fortunately, no one was injured). The bullet that was fired came from the pistol used in the Norris killings.

In the continuing story, Needham was charged by the Feds with being a felon in possession of ammunition. 100 bullets were found at his residence when Bossier Police executed the arrest warrant and a search warrant.

Needham was found guilty this week and faces up to 10 years in prison.

Clark has not been charged with the Norris murders, and is not like to be charged. DA Schuyler Marvin said that with a conviction on the armed robbery charge, he will seek to have Clark sentenced as a habitual felon under the ‘three strikes’ law. The case isn’t set for trial yet, but is set for a status conference on January 17th.

"Miss Gaye"

On August 30th, Angela Gaye Haltom was shot to death on a parking lot at First Baptist Church in Bossier City, where she was employed by the Wee Center daycare.

When she left work to go to her car, she was met by her estranged husband, Allan Haltom, who killed her and then killed himself.

Mrs. Haltom had been in District Court that very morning renewing a protective order against Haltom. He also was facing criminal charges from an incident at the family home in Haughton. Haltom had rented a car that his wife wouldn’t recognize when she left work. From there he ambushed her.

“Miss Gaye”, as she was known to the children at the daycare, was well loved by the kids and the parents alike.

Oceans Two – The Great Jet Ski Escape

That is just a representation of the Jet Ski that was used.
That really isn't Regis either.

It was a plan worthy of James Bond. Rob a Riverboat Casino and escape on a jet ski. My imagination runs wild, did they have a jet waiting to take them to Switzerland to a private villa to enjoy their ill-gotten loot?
Very James Bondish, except, you know, for the part about being caught and bitten by a police dog.
LaNorris Weathers and Regis Demond Hamilton tried to rob a cashier’s cage at Sam’s Town Casino in Shreveport at about 2:50 this morning.
Despite the best laid plans of mice and men, it backfired. LaNorris was captured by police in the casino. Regis apparently took the Jet Ski and wound up near the wastewater treatment plant in Bossier City, where a short time later BCPD found it and some wet clothes. A Bossier City police dog tracked Regis down and bit him in the process. He was treated at the hospital before being booked by SPD with his partner, LaNorris.

Halloween decorations coming up missing

If you live in Palmetto Park or any of the other subdivisions around the country club you may want to keep an eye out.  It may just be kids vandalizing, but there is no excuse for it. I received this letter today:
I live on Parkridge Drive in Benton, Louisiana and would like to let my neighbors know we have a thief in the neighborhood. I noticed the other morning that some of our Halloween decorations were stolen  out of our yard and then again this morning I noticed that the decorations that I have on our porch were also stolen. Please post this and see if anyone else in my neighborhood is having this problem and maybe we can catch this thief!!!!!

Man charged in Child Porn case in Bossier City was convicted of triple murder in Ohio

The Times is reporting that Clifford Chase II, who was arrested for having child porn on his computer when he took it to Best Buy for repairs, was convicted of the triple murder of his parents and his brother in 1974.
Apparently Chase completed his sentence, so there is an argument that he served his time so he should be left alone concerning that case.
There is also an argument that if a convicted triple murderer is living in your neighborhood, you have a right to know it.
I was not able to find a lot of details, but with some research online did find that he was still in prison in 1996, training guide dogs for the blind.
I also found these headlines from The Columbus Dispatch.

THREE MEMBERS OF A WORTHINGTON FAMILY ARE FOUND SHOT TO DEATH AT THEIR MANSION HOME; DEAD ARE ROBERT CHASE, 44, HIS WIFE, JOAN, 42, AND THEIR SON, ROBERT WHITTIER AMES, 17* Monday, February 4, 1974

19-YEAR-OLD CLIFFORD CHASE II ADMITS TO KILLING HIS FATHER, ROBERT, HIS MOTHER, JOAN, AND HIS BROTHER, ROBERT, IN THEIR HOME AT 340 TUCKER DRIVE, AFTER AN ARGUMENT Tuesday, February 5, 1974

PLEAS OF INNOCENT AND INNOCENT BY REASON OF INSANITY ARE ENTERED ON BEHALF OF CLIFFORD CHASE II ON CHARGES OF AGGRAVATED MURDER IN THE SLAYING OF HIS PARENTS AND BROTHER  Friday, February 15, 1974

THE FRANKLIN COUNTY COURT OF APPEALS REVERSED A LOWER COURT RULING AND HELD THAT AN ORAL & SIGNED CONFESSION BY CLIFFORD CHASE TO THE TRIPLE HOMICIDE CAN BE USED IN HIS TRIAL Wednesday, December 18, 1974

THE PROSECUTION CLAIMED THAT CLIFFORD G CHASE II KILLED HIS MOTHER AND BROTHER BECAUSE THEY WITNESSED THE SLAYING OF ROBERT CHASE, 44 Thursday, October 2, 1975

ROBERT (WHIT) CHASE, 17, APPARENTLY STRUGGLED AND TRIED TO TAKE THE GUN AWAY FROM THE PERSON WHO FIRED TWO BULLETS INTO HIS CHEST ACCORDING TO A FIREARMS EXPERT Friday, October 3, 1975

CLIFFORD G CHASE II WAS FOUND GUILTY OF ONE COUNT OF MURDER IN THE SLAYING OF HIS FATHER AND TWO COUNTS OF VOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER IN THE SLAYING OF HIS MOTHER AND BROTHER Saturday, October 11, 1975

CLIFFORD G CHASE II WAS SENTENCED TO 15 YEARS TO LIFE IN PRISON FOR THE MURDER OF THREE MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY Wednesday, October 15, 1975

THE OHIO SUPREME COURT RULES THAT CLIFFORD CHASE MUST BE RETRIED IN THE 1974 MURDERS OF HIS FAMILY BECAUSE A COMMON PLEAS CT JURY WAS NOT TOLD HOW TO CONSIDER HIS INSANITY DEFENSE  Thursday, August 3, 1978
 
CLIFFORD CHASE, 23, PLEADS GUILTY TO THREE COUNTS OF VOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER IN THE MURDER OF HIS FAMILY ROBERT, JOAN, AND ROBERT (WHIT) CHASE ON FEB 3, 1974  Tuesday, November 14, 1978

Bullying has Consequences

Early last week I did a blog post entitled Remember Danielle. If you have not read it, do so now. Danielle was a 15 year old student at Parkway High School when she killed herself in May.
I mentioned in the article that Danielle had received over 100 messages from one individual, a 17 year old, encouraging her to go ahead and commit suicide.
The young man, Jason Patrick Thomas, was charged in February with Cyberbullying.

• A. Cyberbullying is Read the entire statute (LRS 14:40.7).
  the transmission of any electronic textual, visual, written, or oral communication with the malicious and willful intent to coerce, abuse, torment, or intimidate a person under the age of eighteen.

Last week that charge was amended to Criminal Assistance to Suicide. Thomas will be arraigned on that amended charge next Tuesday, September 6th. He is represented by Shreveport attorney Elton Richey.

• A. Criminal assistance to suicide is Read the entire statute (LRS 14:32.12)
• (1) The intentional advising or encouraging of another person to commit suicide or the providing of the physical means or the knowledge of such means to another person for the purpose of enabling the other person to commit or attempt to commit suicide.
• (2) The intentional advising, encouraging, or assisting of another person to commit suicide, or the participation in any physical act which causes, aids, abets, or assists another person in committing or attempting to commit suicide.

Danielle’s family has set up a Facebook page ‘Smiles for Danielle’ on Facebook designed to help prevent teen bullying and suicide. By mid-September a website will be up.